A hearing device may enable or enhance hearing by a user wearing the hearing device by providing audio content received by the hearing device to the user. For example, a hearing aid may provide an amplified version of the audio content to the user to enhance hearing by the user. As another example, a sound processor included in a cochlear implant system may provide electrical stimulation representative of the audio content to the user to enable hearing by the user.
In some cases, it may be desirable for a hearing device to adjust one or more settings and/or operations based on whether a user of the hearing device is walking, running, or otherwise taking steps. To this end, a hearing device may be configured to detect a walking state of a user by applying a walking detection algorithm to accelerometer data generated by an accelerometer included in the hearing device. However, due to processing constraints, a conventional walking detection algorithm executed by a hearing device is relatively basic and can have difficulty detecting some types of walking activities, such as slow and/or irregular walking often exhibited by elderly and/or disabled users.